orvietan
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A medical composition or electuary believed to be an antidote or counter-poison.
Examples
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The three white men could get no food but unripe berries, from the effects of which Hennepin thinks they might all have died, but for timely doses of his orvietan.
France and England in North America; a Series of Historical Narratives — Part 3
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We are now to have, as a remedy for ills, not orvietan, or opium, or any quack medicine, but plenty of air and water, with due attention to warmth and freedom in dress, and simplicity of diet.
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“He is in little danger from what he has hitherto taken, provided he swallow the matter of a bean’s size of the orvietan every morning fasting; but let him beware of a relapse.”
Note
The word 'orvietan' comes from Orvieto, in Italy, where it was supposedly invented.
